Deputies: Larger woes loom for man found snoozing with a bag of cocaine in his lap

Photo: Collier County Sheriff's Office

By Barbara HijekFloriDUH

Deputies found a man who identified himself as “Victor Escalante” snoozing in his 1994 purple Lincoln Town car, which had both the interior lights and music turned on -- along with a bag of cocaine in his lap on Sunday, according to a news release from the Collier County Sheriff's Office.

When a field test confirmed the powdery substance inside the bag was indeed coke, deputies hauled 25-year-old man to the slammer.

A fingerprint at the jail revealed there was a warrant for the man's arrest under the name Sinar Roblero Escalante for leaving the scene of a deadly 2005 traffic crash, the release stated.

Seven years ago Escalante allegedly struck a pickup head-on, crushing to death a 25-year-old man who had been working between the pickup and another vehicle, according to Collier County Sheriff’s Office reports.

The victim’s wife, who was in the pickup at the time of the accident, reportedly told deputies that Escalante got out of his 1986 Toyota Cressida and came over to where her husband was on the ground and then fled.

Escalante had been able to elude lawmen, who believed he had fled to Mexico, until Sunday.